Just as the government doesn’t have the right to tell me what my religion is, the government doesn’t have the right to tell me what my sexuality/sexual orientation is; therefore, no one has the right to discriminate against me based on my sexuality. The government must treat its citizens equally. If all heterosexuals get to marry, then so do the homosexuals.

Exactly, Sharon. I’m not all that enamored of the whole “when I grow up and get married” paradigm, to be honest; I’d prefer if emotional ties were not a matter of State concern at all, and if little kids weren’t taught from infancy that marriage is the pinnacle of life experience. That said, if anyone gets to do this thing that brings such approbation, legitimacy, and access to official acknowledgement, protection, and — let’s be blunt — MONEY, then everyone should get to do it. It’s plain fairness.

My first domestic partner was a woman. She and I shared a home, a family, weddings, funerals, sickbed duty, and everything else that means “marriage” to me. It is insane that a man and woman can meet each other in Vegas, get married an hour later, and be more “married” in the eyes of the law than Jennifer and I were. It is just nonsensical.

Under our nation’s constitution, every individual is entitled to equal protection under the law. Federal and state laws accord to the individuals joined in marriage an array of rights, privileges, and protections that are unavailable to individuals not joined in marriage. Thus the right to marry is a basic civil right, the right to equal application of the law.